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1.5.5-Shirley-keeldar
Brick!club 1.5.5: Vagues éclairs à l’horizon I don’t even know what to do with Javert. So here are the notes I took about things that particularly struck me. Valjean almost but not quite succeeds in becoming the Bishop. I think part of the conflict between Javert being his only enemy and Fauchelevent showing up next chapter is that these infodumps and scenes aren’t really linear. This chapter is the totality of everything about Javert and Madeleine, up to the moment of Fantine’s arrest, whereas the Fauchelevent chapter is an illustrative instance. I really like that Valjean somehow became the great mediator for everyone in the area. The interesting thing about that is that I’ve been taking a class on mediation, and a lot of being good at that stuff is being able to understand people, make them know that you understand them, and be able to find the right words to explain them to other people. That seems like exactly the kind of skillset that Valjean wouldn’t have had any chance to acquire, so I do wonder what kind of wisdom exactly he was dispensing, and what these people’s other options were if they came to him. Il semblait qu’il eût pour âme le livre de la loi naturelle. (It seemed he had for a soul the book of natural law.) This just seems so entirely interesting to me because it’s a very Enlightenment, rather than Romantic, sentiment. I would like to unpack this more but I cannot brain, so perhaps someone else will gallantly step in and help me. Everyone’s already pointed out that Hugo clearly wants to write dæmon fic. But repetition doesn’t make it less true. Although it comes right after that weird forced parable about animals, I do like this: L’éducation sociale bien faite peut toujours tirer d’une âme, quelle qu’elle soit, l’utilité qu’elle contient. (Social education done well can always draw from a soul, whatever it may be, the use it contains.) It both is and isn’t harkening back on the central theme — the one we had illustrated so much less subtly with that nettle metaphor not to long ago. And I know it’s ridiculous, but I just love the wolf metaphor. Les paysans asturiens sont convaincus que dans toute portée de louve il y a un chien, lequel est tué par la mère, sans quoi en grandissant il dévorerait les autres petits. ''Donnez une face humaine à ce chien fils d’une louve, et ce sera Javert. (The Asturian peasants are convinced that in every wolf’s litter there is a dog, who is killed by the mother, without which it would devour the other little ones when it grew. Give a human face to this dog, son of a wolf, and that will be Javert.) The thing that’s great about it is that even though the legend doesn’t make any sense, it still gives you such a powerful impression of Javert. A+. I’ve always been in love with the line ''il était espion comme on est prêtre (he was a spy as one is a priest). Just aaaaah. (Nope, nothing more coherent than that to add.) That is all I have, except that I also wonder why he hates books. Do we have any theories on that? It just seems weird, and also weird that he forces himself to read them even though he hates them. I mean, maybe the two are related, but why would he have started forcing himself in the first place? And what kind of books is he even reading? Hugo, you are falling down on your infodump requirements, and that is sad. Commentary Sarah1281 I think the books were for self-improvement, either because he’s reading useful books about law or something or just because this way he becomes more educated. And if he doesn’t have some sort of reading disability perhaps he’s just a slow reader or finds it really boring or doesn’t have great books to choose from. Pilferingapples "Hugo, you are falling down on your infodump requirements"— isn’t that always the WEIRDEST? Since I really don’t see Valjean as being exceptionally insightful about people, I’m guessing he’s a valued mediator because he’s unbiased, unbribed, and generally available to everyone? I don’t know how much a proper court case would cost people at this time, but surely more than a lot of disputants could afford. Valjean would have been a known authority anyone could use, maybe that made up for some of the oddness his decisions might veer into? That…seems plausible? HELP I DON’T KNOW EITHER. Likewise the thing with the books. Maybe Javert found reading hard, or thought some of the ideas he encountered were rebellious, but read to keep ahead of anyone he might have to arrest? Oooh, I can see that, actually— him reading all the latest insurrectionist lit, so he can blend in with the rebel crowds? He would HATE IT, but do it for Duty And The Law. Wow, now some things make sense! THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME STUDY THIS POINT, this is awesome in light of future events. Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Pilferingapples) I see the Javert reading thing as him doing something he knows is right because it’s the right thing to do. Respectable people read, reading is good for you, therefore he is going to do it. Though I love the idea of him basically being O’Brien from 1984 and going around reading/planting revolutionary material to better catch enemies of the state.